Detroit, MI

Q&A: Donna Jackson is the new gallery manager of Detroit’s historic Scarab Club

Published

12 months ago

April 6, 2025

Q&A: Donna Jackson is the new gallery manager of Detroit’s historic Scarab Club

A quaint and historic destination for visual, literary and performance art in Detroit, the Scarab Club announced Donna Jackson as the new gallery manager.

With more than 20 years of experience in design, project management and cultural programming in the city, Jackson says she’s looking forward to building on the legacy of the Scarab Club, which was founded in 1907, while creating new opportunities for artists and art lovers.

“We are delighted to welcome Donna Jackson to the Scarab Club,” said Scarab Club’s executive director Kathryn Dimond, in a press release announcing the appointment in March. “Her unique combination of artistic vision, marketing expertise, and commitment to community engagement makes her the ideal person to lead our gallery program into its next chapter.”

Read on for our recent conversation with Jackson, who is the first Black woman to manage the gallery for the Scarab Club. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: We know that you studied at Western Michigan University and the College for Creative Studies, but tell us a little bit more about where you grew up and how you started getting into art before your college days.

A: I’m born and bred here in Detroit. When I was growing up, it was just west side or east side, but I was in centralized Detroit. I actually went to Central High, so that probably helps a little bit. As far as I can remember, I always drew. I was a kind of timid kid, quiet kid. Even at 5 years old, I remember really drawing. It was something that allowed me to express myself being a quiet kid, and that just stayed with me throughout elementary, middle and even high school. It’s something that, again, allows me to just kind of be me, understand me as kind of a quieter, more introverted person. It’s been with me the whole time, and I don’t see that going away.

Q: Talk to us a bit about your personal history with the Scarab Club. You’ve curated events there and now you’re the gallery manager.

A: The first time I visited, there was most likely years before I understood what the Scarab Club was. I was at the Detroit Institute of Arts — and this is probably most people’s experience, is that you see this beautiful building across from the Detroit Institute of Arts, and you take a chance and you open the door and you’re going in and you’re amazed that all of these galleries are there. All these nice people are there, and all this art activity is happening in that space. From there, it was on my radar.

After that, I had done a couple of presentations there to focus on art and careers and just some of these basic things maybe artists need, like how to write a bio, how to get your CV together. So that was kind of my, in a more professional way, coming in there and not just a stalker of art in that space. Then I got an opportunity to curate an exhibition in 2022 or 2023 — during those COVID years it’s all kind of a blur, right — it was an exhibition featuring art based off of W.E.B. DuBois’ essay “The Souls of Black Folk” and being able to display works from local Detroiters, all Black artists, it was a really great experience. Really, truly, Scarab has been family since then. And now, here I am able to really direct what really happens in that gallery, and I’m so excited about that.

Q: Now that you are the gallery director, what are some of your plans for the near future?

A: So right now there are some things that are already on the schedule, so just working through some of those fabulous exhibitions that feature some of the things that go on in Detroit. We have an exhibition on an Iranian-American artist that’s coming up in the next month. We have an exhibition that’s really focusing on the hot artists that are up-and-coming, and just being able to display those folks and give them a space to be seen and to shine.

One that’s a favorite of mine is a poster exhibition, which is something I adore. I think posters are an amazing art media and artform. During the Month of Design we’ll be displaying posters from Detroit, of course, but also other areas like New York and L.A. and from all over the world. So that’s what’s coming up.

But as far as myself, as I get a chance to start working on like 2026 and 2027, I’m really interested in the things that make us human and those things that we have similarities in, and really kind of leaning into those stories of us, our humanity. There are a lot of identity exhibitions that I see, which are wonderful and they’re needed, especially now, but I also would like to lean into those things that are very much similar as a human being when you think about things like grief or work or laughter or happiness or loneliness or family. These are things that most all of us could in some way understand and have a perspective on. I would like to, through the arts, have more of those kinds of conversations that bring us together and see sameness and not just those things that may be different about each of us.

That what I’m hoping to get a chance to do while also celebrating our diversity because Metro Detroit is such an amazing space culturally. To ignore that would be a shame.

Q: The Gilda Snowden exhibit is wrapping up this weekend at the Scarab Club and it looks like the next big event is the Masquerade Ball on April 12. Can you tell us more about that?

A: The Masquerade Ball is an upcoming fundraiser that we are having at the Scarab club. You can come dressed up in your mask and have loads of fun, and at the same time you’re supporting Scarab Club and all the different things we do.

Visit scarabclub.org for more information on the upcoming ball and other events this spring and summer.

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

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Detroit, MI

Mitch Albom: Detroit Opening Day tradition embraces the local perfectly

Published

6 hours ago

April 5, 2026

Press Room

Mitch Albom: Detroit Opening Day tradition embraces the local perfectly

To many people, it makes no sense. Here was the seventh game of a 162-game baseball season, the Detroit Tigers had lost four of the six already played, yet seemingly the entire city converged on downtown Friday, April 3, to get into the stadium, or sit outside the stadium, or just hang around the stadium.

They stuffed bars and restaurants. They drank beer despite the early hour. They wore orange or blue clothing and caps with an Old English “D.” There is no way to count how many total people swarmed the streets, or how many of them had called in sick to their jobs to be here.

We call it Opening Day, and in Detroit it is virtually a holiday. Not elsewhere. Other cities don’t make this fuss. To many of them, going wild for the seventh game of the season makes no sense.

And that’s OK.

In fact, it’s perfect.

Far from the only nonstandard tradition

Opening Day made me think about how many things we do around these parts that are uniquely ours, traditions that we cherish but which don’t necessarily travel.

The Dream Cruise. It began as a charity event, and is now is a fixture on the August calendar. But if you tell someone in Boston or San Diego that thousands of people sit in lawn chairs along a busy boulevard to watch old cars drive past, you’ll get laughed out of the room.

The Independence Day Fireworks. Yes, other cities have them. No, they don’t have them in late June. We do. Supposedly we do this because of our proximity to Canada, which celebrates on a different schedule. Of course, Canada Day is July 1, and America’s holiday is July 4, so someone should explain how June got in there.

But, hey, maybe they shouldn’t. It’s our tradition. And that’s what’s important.

Sweetest Day. Hate to break this to area lovers, but that’s not really a thing in the most of the country.

Paczki Day – yes, it’s a way to celebrate Fat Tuesday, but it’s much bigger here in the Midwest than in other regions.

The Charity Preview at the Detroit Auto Show. That’s like the Motor City’s Met Gala, but it doesn’t exist elsewhere. And auto shows in general are not the must-see events they are in our town.

Traditions like throwing octopi at hockey games, singing “born and raised in South Detroit!” chanting “Onward Down the Field” when the Lions score or yelling “DEEE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALLLLLL!” are things you will not witness anywhere else.

And it may be a hot dog everywhere else, but it’s a coney here.

If all of this makes us quirky, well, quirky we should be. Because in a world of increasing homogenization, local traditions are in peril.

A taste for tradition

Consider what the internet and multinational corporations desire. Everyone on the same page at the same time.

Apple wants the whole world to line up at a given hour for the new iPhone. Taylor Swift wants the whole world hanging on her latest release. Local coffee shops get swallowed by chains. Local eateries surrender to fast food.

As someone who travels for work, I can tell you, decades ago when you went to the South, you heard different music on the radio. You went out West, you saw different retail outlets. You felt like an outsider. You felt like you were someplace new and wondrous.

Today, Nashville looks like Austin looks like Raleigh looks like Phoenix. There’s your P.F. Chang’s next to your Cheesecake Factory. There’s your Best Buy alongside your Costco. The goal of global economies is scale, big numbers, national – even international – audiences. Everyone wants to be the Super Bowl.

But what of the joy of regional customs? Local traditions? The food you can only get here, the music you can only hear there. As the internet shrinks our distance, it also fades our individuality.

When I was a kid in Philadelphia, they had a parade every New Year’s Day, where string bands marched and people wore these crazy costumes, painted their faces, and competed in different categories. It was called the Mummers Parade, and in my youthful naivete, I thought every city did this. Later I realized it was unique to Philly, and in fact, many outsiders found it silly.

Well, as Paul McCartney sang, it isn’t silly at all. Local color shades who we are. Local activities give us a sense of identity. Local traditions bind us to our hometowns, and our shared memories with neighbors.

So we can ask “Did you go to Opening Day?” around here and people know what we mean. There’s something precious about that. In an age of everyone buying from Amazon and eating at McDonald’s, we should fiercely protect what makes us unique.

So yeah, wearing a “Trammell” jersey or telling your friends, “I’ll meet you at Mario’s before the game for the lobster buffet” may make no sense to outsiders. Good. It’s not supposed to.

Contact Mitch Albom: malbom@freepress.com. Check out the latest updates on his charities, books and events at MitchAlbom.com. Follow @mitchalbom on x.com.

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Detroit, MI

Justin Verlander placed on injured list for Tigers with hip issue

Published

19 hours ago

April 4, 2026

Press Room

Justin Verlander placed on injured list for Tigers with hip issue

Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander has been placed on the 15-day injured list with left hip inflammation.

Keider Montero will be called up and is expected to start Sunday, April 5, against the St. Louis Cardinals at Comerica Park.

It will be retroactive to April 1, so the earliest Verlander will be eligible to return is April 16.

Verlander has already pitched once this season, although his first start was forgettable. He gave up five runs off six hits in 3⅔ innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He struggled with his command, throwing 80 pitches (53 for strikes) while recording one strikeout with two walks. Since then, he has worked on his mechanics.

“Head position,” he said Saturday. “Trying to be a little more deceptive and stay in line a little bit longer.”

The Diamondbacks hit Verlander hard, making contact with seven balls that featured an exit velocity over 100 mph.

“It wasn’t good enough,” Verlander said. “I hope it’s not like last year … months trying to find it. Hopefully I find it a little quicker than that. But yeah, you know, I think talking to analysts and those guys and the stuff is actually pretty good, so not too far away. I hope.”

Verlander, 43, signed a one-year deal with the Tigers this offseason, returning to the franchise he spent his first 13 seasons with. He made 29 starts in 2025 for the San Francisco Giants.

And he was expected to start Sunday night against the Cardinals in Comerica Park in front of a national audience on “Sunday Night Baseball” on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.

Montero was optioned to Triple-A by the Tigers on March 4, with the franchise planning on him as their No. 6 starter in the rotation.

“We’ve got to protect our rotation,” Hinch said when Montero was sent to Toledo. “For him, defining the role where we felt like he can help us the most was going to be, at some point, in our rotation. Whether that’s getting called up as a sixth starter, or god forbid anything happens, he’s equipped to handle that, and the only way to do that is get him going and building him as a starter.”

In 2025, Montero registered a 4.37 ERA with 31 walks and 72 strikeouts across 90⅔ innings in 20 games (12 starts) for the Tigers. He also logged a 5.91 ERA across 42⅔ innings in 10 games (eight starts) for Triple-A Toledo.

Montero has made one start for Toledo, throwing four scoreless innings against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on March 29. He struck out three with one walk.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff

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Detroit, MI

‘Downtown Takeover’ in Detroit leads to several teens being detained, dozens in the streets

Published

1 day ago

April 4, 2026

Press Room

‘Downtown Takeover’ in Detroit leads to several teens being detained, dozens in the streets

Crowd of teens out past curfew detained downtown

The incident was not random, as ‘Ceasefire Detroit’ announced that there were talks of a “Downtown Takeover” involving kids and teens. Throughout Friday evening, videos from social media showed large groups of teens running around in the downtown area past curfew.

DETROIT (FOX 2) – Dozens of teens swarmed Downtown Detroit, leading to a heavy police presence in the area.

What we know:

Detroit police say a gun was fired during the commotion but no one was hurt. Police are working to determine who fired the shot. Police sources also told FOX 2 that officials have been tracking the kids and teens around the city all night.

Meanwhile, officials have been detaining teens, but due to the large number of people, they have been placed on buses.

What we don’t know:

It is unknown if anyone got hurt or how many people were detained/arrested. FOX 2 will update this report when we learn more.